Kathy Whitney

The National Transformation Network, a collaborative of seven medical schools that seeks to transform medical education by focusing on its “Triple Aim” — character, caring and competence, met at Vanderbilt on June 14-15 for its semi-annual in-person meeting.

If you chat with Bob Wheaton, executive director of Vanderbilt Environmental Health and Safety, for a few minutes, it quickly becomes clear he’s not from around here.

Student-run free health clinics, a hallmark of most medical schools across the country, not only provide valuable clinical experience for the students who volunteer there, but may actually reduce hospital utilization by the patients in their care, according to a Vanderbilt study recently published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

Catherine Fuchs, MD, has been named co-chair of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Admissions Committee effective July 1.

In his message to the class of 2018 at Commencement last Friday, Jeff Balser, MD, PhD, President and CEO of Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, spoke of the increasingly high cost of health care, and the role the new graduates might play in bringing it under control as they venture into their new careers.

On May 3, the Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame announced seven health care professionals selected as this year’s inductee class, three of whom have close ties to Vanderbilt.